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Media on both sides of the Atlantic were running stories that said Paul McCartney was dead. He was supposedly killed in a car accident in Scotland on November 9th, 1966 and that a double had been taking his place for public appearances.
Read more at http://thisdayinmusic.com/#cWsqM80zUee5jVYJ.99

On 17 September 1969, an article titled “Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?” was published in the student newspaper of Drake University in Iowa. The article described a rumour that had been circulating on campus that Paul was dead. At that point the rumour included numerous clues from recent Beatles albums, including the “turn me on, dead man” message heard when “Revolution 9” from the White Album is played backwards.[5] In wire reports published as early as 11 October, Beatles press officer Derek Taylor responded to the rumour saying “Recently we’ve been getting a flood of inquiries asking about reports that Paul is dead. We’ve been getting questions like that for years, of course, but in the past few weeks we’ve been getting them at the office and home night and day. I’m even getting telephone calls from disc jockeys and others in the United States.”[6]